


anything you can do

by icanhearyouglaring



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: B99-inspired, Drama, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Romance, justice league au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 14:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17347085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icanhearyouglaring/pseuds/icanhearyouglaring
Summary: There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition between frenemies. (a meet-in-the-Justice-League AU) wally/artemis for @rachelisanerd. B99-inspired.





	1. Chapter 1

“Well, _that’s_ funny.”

Tigress slowly spins around in her seat, spies the smile on Zatanna’s face, and willingly ( _gratefully_ ) takes the bait. Monitor duty can be _such_ a drag. With the Watchtower nearly empty and their shift nearly over, it’d been all too easy for the women to fall into the trap that is the annals of the League, conveniently accessible through their holo-monitors during desperate(ly boring) times such as these.

“What’s funny?” Tigress asks, leaning closer to Zatanna’s monitor.

Zatanna directs Tigress’s attention to a number next to Tigress’s name. “You have the highest number of successful missions this quarter.”

“I do?” Tigress asks, genuinely shocked. She _has_ been pulling double shifts, traveling between Star and Gotham more than ever, but she hadn’t realized she’d been on that many missions.

“Yeah, your numbers are insane,” Zatanna says, nodding before she tilts her head. “Do you sleep?”

“Only on monitor duty,” Tigress snorts, before she sits back and smiles. “This is perfect. Next time you-know-who calls me a house cat, I can throw my numbers back at him and–”

“Oh no, you’re going to want to hold off on that,” Zatanna interrupts her and points to another name on the list. “Flash just updated his mission log. You’re _tied_.”

 _Well, there goes that_ , Tigress thinks, sinking deeper into her seat. “You have got to be kidding me.”

A notification pops up on Zatanna’s screen and she winces before she swipes it away.

“It gets worse,” Zatanna says with a frown. “He’s on his way up here.”

Tigress sits up straighter. “This is so not fair. I’ve been working my ass off and I can’t even get in a _minute_ of gloating? He runs faster than the speed of sound, Zee! Of course he’s going to have high numbers. Plus, he has an entire rogue gallery on rotation and his own turf. I have to share with G.A., Black Canary, _and_ Red Arrow. Even Batman, on occasion.”

“Maybe you should move?” Zatanna offers (un)helpfully.

“Let me look at his file,” Tigress says gruffly, turning back to her own screen and pulling up the mission log, and it only takes her a moment before she finds something of interest. “Oh, this is bullshit. _Helped an old man cross the street_. That is _not_ a mission!”

Tigress throws her hands up. “Who writes mission logs for that?! These numbers are inflated. He’s _cheating_.”

Zatanna laughs, shaking her head. “ _Cheating_? Since when did helping people become a competition?”

“Since you told me I was winning,” Tigress answers, her narrowed gaze trained on the outrageously detailed tiny-itty-bitty so-called _missions_ before her. _Tied my ass._

“What are you winning?”

It takes all of the self-control Tigress has in her to keep from swiping at the man who’d thought it’d be fun to sneak up on her. (How’d he _do_ that? Surely he hadn’t dropped his habit of announcing his presence the moment he enters a room in a single day.) Tigress spins around in her seat, arms crossed and expression sour. Flash doesn’t flinch at the sight of her pinched face, so she makes sure to look extra annoyed as she regards his innocent (definitely not) smile.

Zatanna answers the question for Tigress, pointing to her monitor. “Tigress has the best mission record this quarter.”

Flash takes a closer look at the monitor and quirks his head. “We’re _tied_.”

“Only because you’re cheating,” Tigress says, more defensively than she intended. “No one counts _giving directions_ as a mission.”

Flash leans against the railing of the monitor station and crosses his arms. “What can I say? Bats asked me to keep better track of my time in the field. I’m only following orders. Being _thorough_.”

Tigress doesn’t smile when she asks, “Does he make you log your bathroom breaks too?”

“Ha-ha,” Flash says flatly, sending Zatanna (whose snorting laughter echoes throughout the room) a quick glare before he turns back to Tigress. “Look, my numbers are good because _I’m_ that good. You can’t exactly say I was cheating if I didn’t know this was a game with _rules_.”

“You know,” Zatanna starts, leaning forward in her chair wearing the same smile she’d used to drag Tigress into her discovery, “there _are_ only a few weeks left in the quarter. We _could_ lay down some rules right now and see who has the highest number at the end of the month.”

“I’m in,” Flash says, nodding at Tigress.

Tigress raises a brow at him. “That was fast.”

“Being fast is kind of my thing,” Flash says, and the peacocking he does as he says it is the last thing Tigress needs to see before she makes her decision to knock him off his pedestal.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Tigress says, rolling her eyes as she raps her fingers against her armrest. Her gaze falls on Zatanna’s pleading eyes for a second before she sighs softly in resignation.

Flash crouches down next to Tigress’s chair and asks, “Are you in or not?”

“I’m in,” Tigress says as she looks down at him and crosses her arms. “Here are my terms. No more mini-missions, like saving a cat in a tree or helping old people find the train station. There need to be actual bad guys involved for it to count as a mission.”

Flash nods and purses his lips before he adds, “And if we have a joint mission, whoever takes out the most perps wins the point for that mission.”

“Fine.”

“What do you want if you _win_?” Zatanna interjects, turning to Tigress, her eyes sparkling.

Tigress thinks for a moment before she says, “If I win, Flash has to be my coffee runner for a month.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Flash says, scoffing.

“That’s because you don’t know about her coffee addiction,” Zatanna notes, gleefully writing down the terms on her monitor. “You’re in for it.”

Flash scoffs before he smiles and says, “When _I_ win, Tigress has to go on a date with me.”

 _A what now?_ She’d been expecting anything ranging from shaving her head to being his hype-woman around the Watchtower but a date was– well, that wasn’t– _how dare–_

“But–What–” Tigress sputters (out loud this time), “why is that what you want?”

Flash grins brightly as he answers her question. “Because you’ll _hate_ it.”

 _Of course._ She’d been thinking too small with the coffee lackey idea. Too late to turn back now.

Tigress narrows her eyes and holds out her hand. “Fine. Deal, but only because I know you’re going to lose.”

“Keep underestimating me,” Flash says, smirking as he shakes her outstretched hand. “I’m going to leave your numbers in the dust.”

Tigress snorts, releases her hand from his grip and uses the tip of her boot to lightly push Flash’s knee. He topples back onto his butt against the floor. (Zatanna _loses_ it, burying her mouth beneath her hands and slamming her foot against the ground to quell her laughter.)

Tigress smiles down at him and asks, “Who’s leaving whom in the dust now?”

-o-

Tigress enters her apartment (through the window, as one does) as the sun rises, and she can’t run to her laptop fast enough. She enters her missions in the log, her heart racing, and by the time she finishes her reports, the sun is high in the sky and she’s got a seven point lead on the enemy.

 _Take that_ , she thinks, before she closes her laptop and leaves it on her desk. Satisfied, she takes off her necklace, places it on her nightstand, and makes her way to the shower. While there, Artemis contemplates the many coffee orders she’ll be putting in over the next month. The opportunities are endless when your delivery boy can break the sound barrier and has access to the Zeta network. She finishes her shower and gets ready for bed with a full heart and a mind full of overly complicated caffeinated drinks.

Not even a minute after she shuts her eyes, her phone buzzes on her nightstand. On her screen is a picture of the mission log, and a single message. The picture shows Flash ahead by two missions.

🏃💨 _Better luck next time,_ 🐯. –⚡[9:57AM]

Artemis dreams of crimewaves and espressos.

-o-

“Look, I know the only thing you have on the line here is your dignity,” Rocket says, “but I’d like to remind you that I’m running the risk of losing a significant amount of capital if you lose.”

“Me too,” Superboy says.

“Can we talk about this later?” Tigress asks, kicking another robot monkey into the empty the elevator shaft.

It’s not like Tigress _wants_ to lose (and she’d argue she has a lot more than just her dignity on the line), but there are only so many hours in the day during which she can rack up points. The only real advantage she has is the surging crime rates in Star City and Gotham (and those aren’t exactly things she wants to brag about).

Rocket shakes her head and traps a group of robots in a bubble. “Later would be too late. You _need_ to win _this one,_ right now. Another wave incoming.”

Tigress sends an arrow through a monkey’s eye. “How many is that?”

“Seventeen,” Superboy says, tossing two more monkeys out the broken window of the abandoned office building.

“How many do you think he’s taken out by now?” Tigress puffs, wacking another monkey away with a wooden board. _Okay, no more of this. Time for swords._

Superboy squints at the wall for a quick second. “A grand total of none. He’s still at his post.”

“Do robots count?” Rocket asks.

“Ugh, I hate monkeys,” Superboy groans, grabbing a robot off his back and chucking it into the elevator shaft. “I’d say these qualify.”

“How much did you two bet on the bet?”

When they don’t answer, Tigress turns around and repeats her question in a sterner tone.

Superboy shares a look with Rocket before he coughs.

Rocket shakes her head and says, “It’s better if you don’t know.”

“Then the monkeys count,” Tigress declares, spinning back around and stabbing her sword through two of the robots at once before she tosses them back from whence they came.

-o-

 _Robot monkeys don’t count!_ – ⚡[1:23AM]

 _Majority vote says they do. Better luck tomorrow,_ ⚡. – 🐯[1:25AM]


	2. Chapter 2

As luck would have it, Tigress doesn’t have to wait long to rub her lead in Flash’s face. The very next day, she gets to let her smug grin do the gloating as Aqualad goes over the mission plan to rescue some scientist from the Cult of Kobra. Flash pretends like he doesn’t notice her watching him, but the way his pen digs into the paper on the table in front of him tells her she is right where she wants to be:  _under his skin_.

“Tigress.”

Tigress quits gloating (for now) and snaps her attention to Aqualad.

“Yes, Boss?”

“Stop calling me boss. You’ll keep watch at the south end of the base,” Aqualad says, pointing to a shack on the side of the mountain on screen. “You’ll be out of range for the mind link, but you’ll have eyes on the entire field from that position and we can’t have any surprises. As we will be under radio silence until we clear the mountain, you will not be able to contact us if there is trouble outside.”

“Got it, Boss,” Tigress says, nodding.

Aqualad internalizes his sigh and moves on.

“Finally, Flash, you will stay at the vantage point with Tigress. If something troubling arises, you run close enough to reestablish the mind link and let us know what’s happening outside. For the most part, we are not expecting any interference from beyond the confines of Kobra’s base, but we do not know when the Shadows are expected to make the trade for the doctor.”

“Quick question,” Nightwing says, raising his hand unnecessarily high. “Does Tigress get the point for spotting the Shadow or does Flash get the point for telling us about them, or do they both get points? No points?”

“Is this something that needs to be discussed right now?” Aqualad asks, not surprised in the slightest that it came up.

“There were a few complaints after the last mission so I thought it might be better to clear these things up  _before_  we go. I’m saving you a headache later,” Nightwing explains.

On Tigress’s left, Rocket snorts and whispers, “Someone’s a sore loser.”

Aqualad addresses everyone at the table. “We should hope that neither wins a point and the mission goes uninterrupted.”

“Like  _that’ll_ happen,” Superboy scoffs, leaning forward in his seat across from Aqualad. “I say Tigress should get the point.”

“No way,” Nightwing says, shaking his head. “Flash is the one doing the leg work,  _literally_. He should get the point.”

Superboy snorts. “Spotting a Shadow takes more skill than being the human equivalent of a walkie talkie.”

Tigress doesn’t miss the way Miss Martian’s glowing eyes narrow at Superboy. She also doesn’t miss the way Superboy balks and sits back in his seat. Tigress briefly contemplates asking for a point for not missing a  _damn_  thing at this meeting.

“Hey! I thought we were friends,” Flash says, crossing his arms.

“Enough,” Aqualad says sternly. “Let us agree to play the point situation by ear and focus on the mission. If I see this bet getting in the way of the team’s performance, I  _will_  shut it down.”

That quiets the room, but it doesn’t mean the arguments stop. As Aqualad moves on to detail the logistics of the mission and the importance of maintaining a good relationship within the team, Miss Martian, using her alien-equivalent-of-a-walkie-talkie powers, lets everyone know their dutiful leader is less neutral than he appears.

 _Aqualad bet me a monitor duty shift they’d tie_ , Miss Martian says.

 _Wow, shut that gambling ring down_ , Zatanna says, hurt.  _All sub-bets are supposed to be placed with me._

 _We are not tying_ , Tigress says.

Flash agrees.  _Yeah, no ties. We’d have to do a sudden death round or something._

 _All in favor of sudden death being stealing the Batmobile?_  Nightwing suggests.

 _Abso-fucking-lutely not_ , Tigress says, before anyone can raise their mental hands in favor of sending her to hell.

 _Ditto_ , Flash says.  _Been there, done that, never want to do it again. The nightmares aren’t worth it._

“If anyone has any questions related to the mission, you can ask them on the Bioship,” Aqualad says, standing up (and snapping everyone’s attention back to him). “It’s time to go.”

-o-

“Oh,  _nice_ ,” Flash says, leaning over to watch Tigress unpack her gear, “you brought the big bow.”

“Did anyone teach you how to be a lookout?” Tigress asks, organizing her equipment against the wall of the shack. “Were you absent the day they taught that you’re supposed to be  _quiet_  and actually  _look_  for things?”

Flash sighs melodramatically as he leans against the wall. “I  _have_  been looking, and according to the infrared scanner on my goggles, the only things around here are cute little woodland creatures and us.”

“Still failing at the whole  _quiet_  part,” Tigress notes, picking up a pair of binoculars and trying to do her  _job_.

“Oh, come on, T. Humor me,” Flash says, zipping to and fro in the shack before plucking an arrow from her quiver and holding it towards her. “You and I are always getting stuck with the fringe jobs. You have to admit it gets boring after awhile.”

It does, but contrary to what he says, she doesn’t have to admit it.

“Did Nightwing smuggle you caffeine just to spite me?” Tigress asks, taking her eyes away from the trees to give Flash a  _look_. “How can you be bored already? We’ve been here less than five minutes.”

“Well, you’ve been ignoring me the  _whole_  time,” Flash notes, tossing the arrow between his hands at too-high a speed.

Tigress rolls her eyes. “You know that arrow could fill this shack with smoke if you keep that up.”

“Noted.” Flash quickly places the arrow back where it belongs.

Tigress returns to scanning the treeline and sighs, “God, you’re like a puppy.”

“I am pretty cute, aren’t I?”

He is, but that is  _so_  not where she was going with that.

“You’re  _needy_ ,” Tigress explains, checking another route for any movement. “You need constant attention. You have a ridiculous amount of energy. You eat  _so much_.”

“Hey, I can’t help that last one,” Flash says, and Tigress has to imagine the pout on his face as her eyes catch some movement in a far clearing.  _Just a deer._

“Yeah, yeah, your metabolism, whatever. You’re still distracting.”

“Distractingly hands- _shit_ –”   

Tigress takes the time to put her binoculars down, turn, and investigate his curse. Her eyes widen as she catches him cowl-less and smiling at her.

Tigress’s breath catches in her throat for a half-second before she yells, “Don’t do that! We’re exposed out here!”

“Calm down. I was hearing feedback,” Flash pulls his cowl back over his face and adjusts his ear piece covers. “So much for being quiet…”

The tense silence between them is broken by the sound of an owl hooting in the distance, and it is only then that Tigress snaps back into the moment.

“We’re on a freakin mission. How could you take off your cowl just like that?” Tigress asks, scowling behind her mask as her foot bounces against the floor.

“It’s fine,” Flash shrugs and shakes his head. “It’s just us. It’s not a big deal.”

“It  _is_  a big deal,” Tigress counters, roughly turning back to her lookout duties. The binoculars refuse to remain still in her shaking hands. “There are a million reasons why it’s a big deal. It defeats the purpose of having  _secret_  identities. If someone sees your real face… First, they find your face, then they find your name, and then they find you. Or worse– they find the people you care about.”

Flash steps closer. “I know the reasons, T.”

“Then for such a smart guy, you are incredibly stupid. You won’t catch me flashing my face around anytime soon.”

Flash snorts. “Come on, Tigress, we both know that’s not your real face behind that mask.”

Tigress stills before she lowers her binoculars and turns to face him  _again_. The smug look she’d expected to find isn’t there. Instead, she’s struck by the small, knowing smile he sends her.

“You knew?” Tigress slowly asks, her eyes locking with his.

Flash nods. “I had a feeling– and I recognized the glamour charm. Zatanna made one for Aqualad so he could come to Guardian’s bachelor party sans gills.”

Tigress fights the pressure building in her chest. Flash has managed to evolve from distraction to major life disruption. It was only a matter of time.

“If you tell anyone, I will use you for target practice,” Tigress says sharply, turning back to look through the binoculars and away from Flash.

“I won’t say a word. You can trust me. Scouts honor.”

Flash leans against the window frame and watches her. This goes on for a full minute, and with every passing second, Tigress finds herself wishing for the silence to end. Why couldn’t they just go back to picking at each other?

Tigress snaps, “Stop looking at me. Do your job.”

Flash sighs and walks over to the only other window in the shack. He lowers his goggles and does as she says, but the silence eats at them both.  

Tigress puts her binoculars down and catches him looking at her again. “Seriously, it’s like I can hear you thinking about it. What do you want? A medal?  _World’s Greatest Detective_?”

“No, I just have questions.”

“Will you drop it if I answer one?” Tigress offers.

Flash launches into a string of questions. “Are you actually that tall? Can these charms change height? Who chose this disguise: you or Zatanna? Do you ever take that thing off? And is your hair really that color? Or have all of those ginger jokes you’ve been hurling at me since we met come from personal experience?”

“I said one,” Tigress groans, even though she asked for it. She goes back to looking out the window before four quiet words slip past her lips. “I might be blonde.”

“Hmm,” Flash says, practically  _appearing_  at her side and appraising her mask-covered profile, “I can’t see it.”

“That’s the point,” Tigress says, narrowing her eyes at the blurs coming into focus in the distance. “Q&A over. We have trouble.”

Flash straightens his stance. “Where?”

“Northeast quadrant. There’s movement in the trees, heading towards the east entrance. I can’t tell from here, but it looks like two people. You need to– no, wait, it’s too late for that. If Aqualad’s on schedule, they could be coming out of there any minute now.”

Tigress tucks her binoculars back into their pouch before she grabs her bow and plucks an arrow from her quiver.

She sends a quick look to Flash before she turns back to the trees and aims. “We have to stall the Shadows before they get to the mountain.”

Tigress lets the arrow fly and watches it arc through the air until it lands just to the right of where she last saw the Shadows. There is a three second period of silence before the arrow explodes. The sound echoes through the valley.

Now they  _all_  know they are not alone.

Tigress shoulders her quiver and latches her bow to her back before she turns back to Flash and says, “The Shadows should change course to investigate. We need to stall them.”

“On it,” Flash says, and before Tigress can blink, she’s in his arms and they’re zooming through the woods.

-o-

“Nice one, genius,” Tigress says, a bit breathlessly, as Flash puts her down at the edge of a clearing. “Half of my gear is back there.”

“You won’t need it,” is all the warning they get before they catch sight of the blades flying in their direction.

_Too close._

Tigress starts to turn around to let her quiver take the hit, but Flash shoves her out of the way and most of the blades end up in the trees behind them.

“Ouch,” Flash says, pulling a shuriken out of his arm, “that stings.”

“You okay?” Tigress regains her footing and pulls her bow out in an instant.

Flash nods. “Just a scratch. I’ll be fine.”

“Where are they?” Tigress asks, scanning the treeline.

“One o’clock. Just one,” Flash answers, his goggles glowing. “The other one is still heading for the gate.”

Tigress launches her arrow at the center of the field and a cloud of white smoke fills the clearing.

“I’ll keep this one busy. You go after the other one,” Tigress orders. “You can’t let them reach the doctor!”

“I’ll be right back,” Flash calls out, jogging backwards into the forest. “Keep your comm on.”

“Got it.”

Tigress fires another arrow into the cloud of smoke, and this time, it sends the smoke into the air, leaving her target exposed. The figure at the edge of the clearing gets clearer as it runs right towards her. Tigress launches an arrow at the feet of the figure, but they jump in time to avoid the netting that releases from the tip. As they descend, they fire another barrage of shuriken at Tigress. Tigress rolls out of the way and pops up with her bow at the ready. She shoots at the ground between them and a sonic wave knocks her opponent off of her feet. Tigress moves in on her prey, slowly walking towards the fallen assassin.  _Hmm_. The grinning cat mask in front of her confirms her hunch about her opponent, as if the sais and shuriken weren’t telling enough on their own.

“Don’t move,  _Cheshire_ ,” Tigress says strongly as she aims her arrow at Cheshire’s mask. “It won’t end well for you if you do.”

Cheshire stands up as she appraises Tigress, and everything about her, from her fixed posture to the stagnant smile on her mask, sends a chill up Tigress’s spine. Her reputation may proceed her, but no one could have warned Tigress about the unnerving feeling of facing Cheshire in the flesh.

“Cute,” Cheshire says, easily twirling her sai in her hands. “Wish I had time to play, kitten, but I have bigger fish to fry.”

Tigress steels herself and narrows her gaze at her target. “Don’t move. Last warning.”

Cheshire keeps twirling her sai. “My partner says Aqualad’s out there. It’s been awhile since I’ve had some fun with him. I think it’s time for a rematch, don’t you?”

“I told you to stop moving,” Tigress says, releasing her arrow without hesitation.

There is strong satisfaction in watching someone try and dodge an arrow that releases a boxing glove before impact. Tigress has to work to tame her grin as the glove gets a good half of Cheshire’s mask and sends it flying into the dirt.

Cheshire’s face pinches as she bares her teeth at Tigress and charges, a mess of wild black hair and loose green fabric. Instead of the sai, or the sword, or the sudden screeching emanating from the valley, it’s the dark, determined eyes shining in the moonlight that have Tigress’s full attention.

It registers in slow motion, a feeling akin to an off-centered gear clicking back into place somewhere deep inside, and Tigress can’t do anything but lower her shot and let Cheshire tackle her to the ground as she realizes exactly who she’s fighting.

“ _Jade_?” Tigress gasps, her mind snapping back into action as she instinctively blocks Cheshire’s incoming punch.

“ _What_?” Cheshire– _Jade_ – snarls, going in for another hit.

Tigress manages to free her legs out from underneath Cheshire and kick her back into the dirt.

“ _Jade_ ,” Tigress repeats tightly before she sits up and asks, “is that you?”

“Who are you?” Jade says from the ground, breathing hard from the strength of the kick.

Tigress quickly takes off her mask and tosses it to the side. The million reasons to keep it on are outweighed by the million and one reasons to take it off for the woman in front of her.

“Jade, it’s me,” Artemis says, ripping the glamour charm from her neck and letting it fall to the ground beside her mask.

For a long moment, the only sounds in the clearing come from the wind rushing through the trees.

“ _Artemis_.” Jade looks at her like she’s a ghost, and Artemis knows her own face must mirror her sister’s because for the longest time–

“I thought you were dead,” they say, breaking their stunned silence in unison.

Jade holds eye contact with Artemis as she stands and holds her side.

“Dad said–” Artemis’s voice fails her, as do her legs as they refuse to move. “Dad said you were dead.”

“He’d like that, wouldn’t he?” Jade says, stopping just a foot away from Artemis. “I can’t believe you’re here right now. I’ve been to your  _grave_.”

Jade holds out a hand and Artemis takes it and it feels so wrong. Artemis stands and faces her sister, hoping with all her might that this is not some trick.

“I had to disappear,” Artemis chokes out, never having thought she’d have to explain herself to  _Jade_. “He wanted me to replace you. I didn’t– I wouldn’t–”

“You couldn’t,” Jade says darkly.

“You– How–” Artemis’s question is cut off by the voice in her ear.

_Miss M neutralized the Shadow before I got there. On my way back to Tigress._

“I have to go,” Jade says, looking back and forth between the mountain and Artemis.

Jade presses her hand against her ear as she starts walking backwards, towards the edge of the clearing. “On my way.”

Artemis takes a step forward. “Jade– you–”

Jade shakes her head, picks up her mask, and continues sinking back into the treeline.

“Don’t worry about Dad,” Jade says, quickly donning her mask. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Jade, wait!” Artemis calls out, echoing the last words she’d spoken to her sister so long ago. “Don’t go…”

Her heart sinks as Jade disappears into the trees and it takes every bit of strength she has to not collapse to the ground right then and there.

 _Jade is not dead._  She didn’t know her actual life could feel like a bigger lie than the one she constructed for herself. She’s so consumed by the thought that she doesn’t even hear Flash stumble through the trees.

“T? What happened?” Flash asks, slowing to a stop beside her. “Did you get yours?”

Artemis doesn’t dare look him in the eye. Instead, she focuses on what she can see: the tear in his suit and the blood on his arm.

“Give me your arm,” Artemis instructs, mechanically pulling a wound dressing from her belt.

“It’s no big deal. I’m already healing.” Flash cranes his neck away from her as he extends his arm towards her. Artemis doesn’t need to look at his face to know his eyes are closed. “Where’s your Shadow?”

“Gone.” Artemis presses the dressing against his cut and applies pressure. “Cheshire uses poisoned blades. You might burn through it, Mr. Metabolism, but it’s going to take awhile for the wound to close.”

“Cheshire? Was that– uh, you know your glamour charm is off, right?” Flash trails off uncomfortably.

“You can look at me,” Artemis says, checking that the dressing will hold. “It’s fine. I don’t need it anymore.”

He keeps his eyes shut. “The reasons–”

Artemis cuts him off and looks up. “My reasons aren’t reasons anymore.”

Flash opens his eyes, takes a good long look at her, and frowns. “You’re shaking. What happened?”

“Oh,” Artemis says, looking at her hands, “I am. Yeah, that’s– uh, that’s probably the shock.”

“What happened? What do you need?”

 _Tigress, Flash. We have the doctor in the Bioship. Heading to the pick up location. Confirm your status_ , Aqualad’s voice buzzes in their comm lines.

“Zatanna,” Artemis whispers, crossing her arms as she tries to quell the shaking. She shuts her eyes tightly and tells herself to  _get it together_ , but she  _can’t_. “No one else. I need Zatanna.”

Flash responds to Aqualad. “Not ready for pick up. Had a run in with Cheshire near the south entrance, but she got away. Heading back to the shack to collect our gear.”

_Cheshire? Are you two okay?_

“Yeah, we’re fine. Just a little cut up, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. You guys should get the doctor out of here in case she called for backup.”

_Cut up? Cheshire uses blades laced with jellyfish poison. Did either of you get hit?_

“Maybe once, maybe three times,” Flash says, drawing out his answer. “I’m starting to feel it. I would be grateful if Zatanna could pop in at the shack with one of her antidotes.”

 _Sure thing,_  Zatanna chimes in _. I’ll wait for you there._

“Great, thanks,” Flash says. “The rest of you can get out of dodge. We’ll use the nearest Zeta-Beam to meet you at the Watchtower.”

 _Alright_ , Aqualad relents.  _Be careful. Kobra’s men are fanning out into the forest to secure their perimeter._

“Got it. Flash out.”

“Thanks,” Artemis says, opening her eyes. “Did you really just call off our ride?”

“You didn’t want the whole team around right now,” he explains, before he nods in the direction of the shack. “We should start walking.”

“Right,” Artemis says, nodding. After a second, she adds, “Are you okay? I only saw one cut.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was just the one. Had to play it up for the boss.”

Artemis snorts lowly. “He doesn’t like it when we call him boss.”

“Then it’s a good thing he can’t hear us,” Flash says, tapping on his comm.  

The forest is rocky, but not enough to slow them down. They follow a trail up the mountain, and though Flash tries to play off every little slip or sway, Artemis makes sure to stay within arms length of him, in case that poison is affecting him more than he cares to admit. Her slight worry subsides the minute he starts talking again.

“ _So_ ,” Flash starts slowly, “now that I can see the blonde, I have to admit it. It works for you.”

“Thanks,” Artemis says shortly, walking past him to lead the way.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks.

“Nope,” she answers quickly, but the word leaves a sour taste in her mouth.

“O-kay,” Flash says, not pushing it further.

They walk in silence for awhile longer, giving Artemis ample time to regret her decision. Jade said she’d take care of their father and something tells her Jade’s definition of taking care of things hasn’t gotten any more tame with age. If anything, she wouldn’t be surprised if she found out tomorrow that Sportsmaster had been broken out of Iron Heights only to have his ass kicked right outside the prison gates. She’s not sure Jade’s reached the point of patricide, but what does she know, right?

When the shack comes into view, Artemis abruptly stops walking and turns around. Flash nearly walks straight into her, but stops about an inch away before he takes a step back. Artemis knows that the second she sees Zatanna, she will break down, so this has to happen  _now_.

“Actually, yes, I want to talk about it.” Artemis says, exhaling loudly. “I need to– I should practice saying this.”

“Okay then, think of me as your practice dummy,” Flash says, jerking his thumb at the lightning bolt on his chest.  

There’s a joke there, an easy one, but Artemis lets it go unsaid and gets straight to the point.

“Right, well,” Artemis stumbles over her words before she shrugs her shoulders back and says, “first off, my name is Artemis.”

Flash extends his hand towards her for a handshake and says, “Nice to meet you. I’m Wally.”

“Wally.” Artemis pauses. “Really?”

“ _Hey_.”

“Okay, okay… uh, next thing. When I was seventeen, I– uh, faked my own death,” Artemis says, speeding up towards the end.

Flash stops shaking her hand as his grip tightens.

“You  _what_?” he asks, eyes wide.

Artemis pulls her hand away as she hurriedly shrugs and explains, “Well, it was either that or kill someone.”

“ _What_?” Flash repeats, waving his hands at her.

“This is why I need practice,” Artemis says, wincing as she throws her hands in the air. “Forget it. Let me start from the beginning. My name is Artemis. My dad is a bad guy.  _Literally_. He’s Sportsmaster. My mom is an ex-con. She was Huntress. I had a sister. I  _have_  a sister. That’s Cheshire.”

“ _Okay_ ,” Flash says, holding a hand to his head as he paces back and forth. “Okay, okay, okay.”

“Stop that.” Artemis swats at him. “It’s really complicated, okay?”

“Okay!” Flash yelps, unintentionally throwing water on the grease fire that is this conversation.

“Stop saying okay!”

“I don’t know what else to say!”

“Stop yelling!”

“ _You_  stop yelling!”

“Both of you: _piz ti_!” Zatanna whisper-shouts at them from the door of the shack. “You’re going to get us caught. Now get in here.”

Zatanna waits to unzip their lips until she’s done applying antidote to Flash’s wound and Artemis is finished packing her gear, much to their silent and much-mimed protest. After Artemis’s first three weak words ( _Cheshire is Jade_ ), Zatanna looks at them both and promptly throws their plan into the wind. Instead of taking them to the nearest Zeta Point, she opens a portal, pushes them through, and they end up sitting in a line on the couch in the living room of Artemis’s apartment.

Artemis places her pack on the coffee table before she stands up and turns to face her supposed best friend.

“What the hell, Zee?” Artemis says, waving at her sparsely furnished living room. “Why’d you bring us here?”

Flash’s “ _Is this your place_?” goes largely ignored as Zatanna stands up and grabs Artemis by the shoulders.

“Jade is Cheshire?” Zatanna asks, her bright eyes boring into Artemis’s.

“Yeah,” Artemis exhales.

The jitters she’d been feeling since seeing Jade fade, giving way to an aching emptiness in the pit of her heart.

“Cheshire is Jade,” Artemis repeats, her voice wobbling.

Zatanna’s eyes steel as Artemis’s eyes fill with tears. As she engulfs Artemis in a hug, Zatanna slowly leads them toward her bedroom door.

“Stay here,” Zatanna says, as Artemis buries her face in Zatanna’s shoulder. Zatanna is the only reason she’s still upright.

Artemis kicks the bedroom door shut behind, hoping it will muffle the pained sob that claws its way past her lips. That one and the next one and the next one.

-o-

Artemis’s swollen eyes open painfully slow, giving her time to use her other senses to gather her surroundings. The faint smell of coffee in the air coaxes her into full consciousness, partly because she craves it and partly because Zatanna is still snoring next to her and she doesn’t remember setting the timer on the coffeemaker before falling asleep. She slips out of bed, careful to not wake Zatanna, who’d so gracefully taken on the role of human tissue dispenser for the night.

Artemis tiptoes her way to the door, opens and closes it without so much as a click, and heads towards the light emanating from the kitchen. She stands in the doorway for a moment, taking in the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the sight of Wally pouring himself a cup.

“You’re still here?” Artemis asks, stepping into the kitchen.

“Oh, yeah,” Wally says, twisting around to face her. “No one told me to leave and I fell asleep. That is a really comfortable couch. You want a cup?”

“Yeah, thanks. I didn’t think we’d be so long. Oh  _shit_ ,” Artemis groans, rubbing her palm against her temple. “ _Aqualad_ –”

“Taken care of,” Wally interjects as he pulls another mug from her cabinet. “I told him we’d debrief later. Took a little creative license with the reason why.”

Artemis takes a seat on the barstool by the kitchen counter. “What’d you tell him?”

Wally laughs to himself as he fills her mug and holds it out to her. “You had bad clams for lunch.”

“ _Thanks_ ,” Artemis says, rolling her eyes and taking the mug in her hands, “if only. Is it weird I wish that were the reason?”

“Nah,” Wally says, shrugging as he leans against the countertop across from Artemis.

“What a night,” she mutters into her mug before taking a sip.

“It wasn’t  _all_  bad.”

Artemis snorts. “Easy for you to say.”

Wally places his mug on the countertop. “Look at it this way: we rescued the doctor. No major injuries. Mission accomplished.”

Artemis leans forward, rests her head on her hand, and flatly asks, “What else you got, Mr. Brightside?”

“You have a sister again, and well, I don’t know about you, but I made a new friend,” Wally says, smiling as he takes a sip of coffee.

 _Can’t argue with that_ , Artemis thinks, pursing her lips as she watches him. He’s made himself comfortable here, rifling through her cabinets with his cowl down and taking a nap on her truly exquisite couch. She likes that he likes the couch, for some reason. The thought makes her sit up straight and take a long swig of her coffee. The coffee is watery, not at all as strong as she’d like it, but it’s still nice. She cradles the mug in between her hands as she speaks again.

“So, Zatanna shut us up before I could finish practicing,” she starts, looking up from her mug resolutely. “Do you think we could try again?”

Wally nods and puts down his mug. “I’m all ears.”

Artemis exhales softly before she starts over. “The abridged version is that my mom, Huntress, got sent to Lockhaven and my sister, Jade, started to tag along with my dad on his jobs. Jade was a natural at it. That kind of life suited her, obviously.”

“One night, my dad came home without her. He said Jade had made a mistake and gotten herself killed for it.” Artemis snorts, restlessly tapping her fingers against her mug. “I should’ve known  _that_  was a lie. Jade never made mistakes. I should’ve  _known_.”

“Dad started training me after that. I had to be better than Jade, but I  _couldn’t_ – that wasn’t  _me_ ,” Artemis says, her mind flipping through the harsh memories of early training days and late night crime sprees.

“I ran into Zatanna during a stakeout, and when she asked me what I was doing on top of the museum, I literally couldn’t stop myself from telling her the truth. She cast a spell on me,” Artemis says quickly before she stops tapping her fingers, looks to the bedroom door, and softens her expression. “We’ve been friends ever since.”

“Uh-huh,” Wally says, entirely for Artemis’s benefit, as his level of actual understanding could be qualified as so-so, tops.

“When I was seventeen, my dad started to suspect I was throwing fights and trying to get him caught. And, well, I  _was_ , but I didn’t want  _him_  to know that. It wasn’t pretty when he confronted me about it. After that, he said I had to get my act together or I’d end up just like Jade.”

Artemis watches Wally’s eyebrows pinch, a subtle movement made plain by the pure amount of effort he’s putting into keeping a straight face.

“When I told Zatanna about what he’d said, we came up with a plan, she made me the glamour charm, and everything kind of spiraled out of control from there. I set up a fake job to ruin. With a little acting and a lot of magic, we convinced him I was dead and that was the end of it. If Artemis was dead, he wouldn’t come after me. I wouldn’t have to claim him. I wouldn’t have to worry about people doubting me as a hero.”

“When I look back at it, I see there were several, less-severe solutions to my problem, but Zee and I were scared and under no adult supervision so we went straight for the nuclear option,” Artemis laughs humorlessly. “After we did it, I visited my mom and told her the truth. She still had a year left in Lockhaven, but she– she supported my decision. I think she only did it because Jade was dead. I lived with Zatanna until she joined the League, and then I got my own offer. Dream come true, really. I had to tell Batman the truth, and Black Canary knows, and Green Arrow knows, but besides them and my mom, no one else knew before today.”

Artemis crosses her arms and nods, mostly to herself, as she says, “That’s it.”

“Of all the reasons you’d have a glamour charm, I never would have guessed it being what you just said,” Wally says, exhaling softly. “I really thought you were just Nightwinging to the extreme.”

Artemis can’t help but snort. “Does Nightwing know you’ve adjectivized his name?”

Wally smiles. “Not yet. Should I tell him soon?”

“I don’t know. He might think you’re treading into his territory,” Artemis warns, unfolding her arms to grab her mug once more.

Wally rolls his eyes. “Pfft, he doesn’t have a monopoly on wordsmithing.”

They share a light look as they take sips from their mugs and ease back into the heavier half of the conversation before them.

“Hey, uh, Artemis?” Wally asks, placing his coffee mug down on the countertop.

Artemis looks up from her mug. “Yeah?”

Wally leans against the countertop and looks her in the eyes. Even in the low lighting, she can make out the faint freckles spanning the edges of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

“You don’t have to worry about people doubting you. You’re, uh, one of us. Have been for awhile. You’re– I mean, the numbers don’t lie. You’re a great hero and–” Wally takes a breath. “Look, what I’m trying to say is this: if you decide to tell the League, the only thing that’ll change for us is your name, and your face, and your hair. But who you  _are_  will be the same. That’s all that matters.”

“Thanks,” slips out before Artemis can put more words together to express how much she really means it.

Wally smiles. “And, if your dad does find out, he’s going to have to fight a whole lot of people before he gets to you.”

Artemis smiles as she leans in to take another sip of her coffee. “Well, what do you know? Flash  _and_  substance.”

Wally laughs into his mug.

Artemis’s nose wrinkles as she nears the end of her drink. “And sub-par coffee making skills. I’ll make the next pot so you can see what real coffee tastes like.”

“Everything’s a competition with you, isn’t it?”

-o-

No one asks any questions when Flash and Zatanna return to the Watchtower that morning with a blonder, darker Tigress. They don’t have time to ask, really, because Tigress takes off her mask and explains it all the same way she did to Flash (albeit a bit more coherently). When Nightwing tries to break the tension by asking who won the point for the mission, Flash makes a show of lamenting the result and calling it a tie.  


End file.
